Remnants in the east
by The Tailor
Summary: The fire nation colonies may have been dissolved into there own city states but the problems they created still exist. On the eastern air island the remains of the fire nation colony struggle to survive against the attacks from the savage natives due to the military pulling away, will the avatar be able to help them against the twisted remains of his people.


A extract from a book on military strategy and the state of the world and the war against the fire nation composed in 99 AG to the high river lords of ling rie river in the south earth Kingdom detailing how the war was going.

This is particularly interesting due to the scholar Helui of gaoling hearing rumours of the avatars return whilst finishing the book making it one of the final works on the war with do not involve in some way avatar aang.

This extract deals with the chance of gaining help with the war from any external force not currently engaged in the war.

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And so we come to the sad tale of the air nomad islands the first true and total conquests of the fire nation , currently all of them are at least nominally under the control of the fire nation and most support fire colonies as well, the most famous of which being those on whale tail island where the largest naval base in the Southern Hemisphere is located.

The exact modern state of the islands is difficult to determine due to a number of reasons from distance in the case of the western temple to the strong navies guarding the east and southern temples all information here can only be presented to the best of my knowledge.

As it has been difficult to receive confirmed reports of native population surviving on the air temple islands away from fire nation control but it has certainly not been indicated by any of the free merchants I have talked to that the original populations have been completely exterminated, in most places the fire nation has taken over the role of governors over the natives and were perfectly willing to allow them to exist as long as they pay taxes and show no signs of revolt their masters are happy to leave them to exist.

The situation was vastly different just over 80 years ago, shortly after the heights of the air nomad genocide the hunting for escapees from the temples had finally calmed down. The Fire nation had effective control over the Eastern air Temple and had scoured clean all population from around the Northern air Temple within the boundaries of the earth Kingdom. The southern air temple with its numerous islands and proximity to the Southern water tribe had taken longer but it also was finally declared ready for colonisation by the fire nation in 12 A.G (after genocide).

With the focus off the closer air temples This allowed the fire nation to posistion all of their previously occupied air bender hunting forces on the eastern air Temple Island this would begin the time known as the 'Great suffering' from the tribespeople who had previously lived around the temple.

the people on the island where a number of small tribes and villages which the air benders had set up under their guidance and control who where carefully managed by the female temple elders to ensure a lack of impact with nature.

The people of the eastern air islanders had managed to do fairly well out of the genocide for those twelve years. Without the air benders there was no one to enforce order onto them and as such they had expanded tremendously, reports indicated that in those years the population doubled in some tribes as they quickly made use of land previously declared sacred by the air nomads.

In 12 AG to 24 AG this changed as the fire nation slowly attacked each individual tribe and village in there search for the remnants of the air temples. The final confirmed death of a air bender by a witness occurred in 18 AG shortly before fire lord Sozins death in 20 AG. Many joke that him killing the last of the air benders caused his death of pneumonia from a spirit curse but there were many other rumours about his death due to his lack of popularity within the earth Kingdom but his age makes it far more likely to have just been a sickness.

Whilst the extent of the fire nation attacks on the eastern air island and the number of deaths are unknown the effects of the attacks are that the north of the island fell into the hands of the fire nation with colonies sprouting up on the northern planes to the west of the mountains and a large naval base being formed which allowed for further attacks into the eastern Earth Kingdom.

The latest report we have that indicates some facet of air nomad islanders have survived independently of the fire nation is a propaganda poster that I managed to acquire from a passing trailer in 94 A.G with the statement "help burn the barbarians out of the south for the glory of the fire nation". whilst posters like this had been used earlier to drum up recruits for attacks against the southern water tribes this one indicates the presence of rebels in the south of the island by showing a picture with the north of the island covered in flames whilst the south is marked by green. This due the unusual shape of the island gives the island the ape range of a torch shinning out its light.

This is rather one of my favourite examples of imagery in propaganda examples, as unlike earlier examples it doesn't reference the fire nation defending itself against the air nomad armies it gives me the impression that even the fire nation can no longer support using them as bogeymen in recruitment propaganda, after all no one has spotted one in 80 years.

Anyway the remnants of independence on the air isles has been rather lacking in terms of numbers until very recently when the number of soldiers on the island has been believed to be increased.

If any remnants remain fighting the fire nation they are certainly not air benders and until recently been doing a very poor job of it.


End file.
